Beneath this tree was Sihamba herself with scarcely any clothing on her, for she had been stripped, her tiny wrists bound together behind her back and a rope about her neck, of which one end was thrown over a bough of the tree.

In front of her, laughing brutally, stood none other than Swart Piet and with him a small crowd of men, mostly half-breed wanderers of the sort that trek from place to place claiming hospitality on the grounds of cousinship or poverty, until they are turned off as a nuisance.

Also there were present a few Kaffirs, either headmen in Swart Piet's pay or some of his dark associates in witchcraft.
At first Suzanne was inclined to turn her horse and fly, but she was a brave girl, and the perilous state of the little doctoress moved her to pity, for where Swart Piet was there she suspected cruelty and wicked motive.

So she rode on, yes, straight up to Swart Piet himself.
"In the name of Heaven what passes here, myn Heer ?" she asked.
"Ah! Miss Suzanne, is it you ?" he answered.

"Well, you have not chosen a nice time for your visit, for we are about to--hang--this thief and witch, who has been duly convicted after a fair trial." "A fair trial," said Suzanne, glancing scornfully at the rabble about her, "and were these friends of yours the jury?
What is her offence ?" "Her offence is that she who lives here on my land has stolen my cattle and hid them away in a secret kloof.